how it's done

March 2080 - Maxwell Shaw is 33, Valerie is 38, Angelo is 9, Devon is 3. (Nina Shaw-Gothier and Benjamin Gothier are 63.)

Angelo knows his dad owns a nightclub, but he has a feeling that isn't all there is to it. Angelo says, "That's funny, Dad, you're not really a bank robber."

"Sure, kid," Maxwell says. Angelo is too young to know what his father really does for a living anyway. Best to joke about it now, while he's young, so that it's less of a blow by the time he's older. Heck, he might even figure it all out on his own, if he's a smart kid. And Angelo is working on figuring things out.

The fact of it is, his father goes to work, all different times of the day or night, dressed in ridiculous outfits. Angelo isn't sure what he does exactly, but he knows it isn't normal.

Note: Maxwell's club-bunny, who walks by his house several times a day...

Maxwell is trying to build some bigger muscles lately. He wants to show his bosses he can handle some tougher jobs. So he pops out to the gym each morning before he makes it to the club. Maybe he would build better muscles if he spent less time tripping over himself, looking like a fool while he checks out all the ladies in their workout gear? There's an especially smoking hot brunette, Emmy Masuko. Every man in Lake City has the hots for her! Though, Maxwell thinks she would look hotter blonde.

Maxwell says, "Hey, Baby, you wanna come see my club? " We suppose that's good enough a pick-up line because she says, "Sure." It doesn't really surprise us that Maxwell would try to charm some chick in the hour between leaving his house and making it over to the club. But wait, let's hit pause on Maxwell for a moment, and do you see that guy in red in the background...

Charlotte Elizabeth Centowski, what the heck do you think you're doing?!?!?!?

This is Blair, by the way, who happens to be Emmy's ex-husband. Charlotte has met Blair before, since Emmy lives in her building. We'll just consider this a momentary lapse of judgment. Flirting is not allowed. Maybe she didn't know? Maybe she was only joking? Maybe she forgot, you know, since it's been so long since she was in an actual relationship. Paul does not need to know! Because crap, they just set a wedding date and Charlotte is going to get married this September, no flaking out allowed! Maybe they should move the wedding date up? Maybe they should make it tomorrow?

See? Divorced and bitter, definitely not someone Charlotte needs to be getting involved with... even if she does think he's slightly hotter than Paul. Attraction isn't everything, Charlotte, if you know what's good for you! (Oh, we hope she knows what's good for her!)

But anyway, back to the Shaw family... even though the club is doing well, and working up to rank 5 now, Maxwell is losing interest in it. It's not really gaining the appeal he thought it would. There's too much space to keep up, and the repairs are expensive since the house is so old. And all the kids still hang out at that commercial piece of crap, Crypt O' Night. Maxwell is bored with it, and wants to try something different.

Though, being a club owner has its perks, he won't lie...

Maxwell comes home, something like a king to his tiny little castle, except his mother is there, since she lives just around the corner. Of course his mother has something to say about the issue. She says, "No, I co-signed on that loan. We're retiring this spring! We've already put down our deposit!"

So they argue about the club for a little while. Valerie just sits there, blissing out on her prescription meds, and Devon wants to be read to...

...while Angelo runs out the back door because his dad and Grandma are arguing, lol! Angelo has very strong feelings about familial aggression! He's a very sensitive little boy!

Valerie is still not getting along any better with Maxwell's mother. "Tennis lessons!" Nina says. "You want to turn my grandson into some preppy boy?" Maxwell's mother is moving to Seaside Woods this spring, and Valerie cannot wait! Valerie and Nina could spend a whole afternoon talking, and not agree on one single thing!

Angelo is a curious and clever boy, and he seems to know a thing or two about everything - blocks included. "Look, Dev, check this out! You paying attention? Let me show you how it's done."

Angelo maybe has his father's smarmy streak, but he adores his baby sister Devon! They even nap together. A guy's gotta look out for his baby sister, you know.

There aren't many kids his age to play with in Lake City. They don't even have a school building of their own, and any kids living in the city are just being bussed into Lakeside Heights for school, since that's where most of the kids Angelo's age live.

This is something Valerie wants to take up with the school board. The city tends to put all of its focus on the university. But Valerie makes a point, that there are several families living in Lake City now, and the Stoneview Court area is especially attractive to Lake City families. (Valerie would love a house out there, if Maxwell would quit wasting his money on failed night clubs!). All those new babies will need schools to go to soon, and maybe some of these families might even stay if their kids have somewhere to go to school.

Valerie feels so strongly about the school situation, that she pops out to City Park one afternoon, to find local parents to sign her petition for Lake City Primary and Secondary schools. There aren't many parents in Lake City, but there are some, young new families. Unfortunately, the first parents she comes across are Aurora Harris and Clarice Miller.

Clarice only recently just quit the school board, and she says, "Not my thing anymore."

Aurora says, "That's my mom you're talking about. And if you don't mind, I think my mother knows how to do her job!"

Bad start! So she takes some time off petitioning for a skate break... this lady is thinking, show off!

Valerie feels chills down her spine, and she can't quite figure out why...

Maxwell's club bunny: *death-glare...*

Back to work then, and what's wrong with these moms, she wonders? It must be that they already plan to move their kids to Lakeside Heights, because who wouldn't care about their children having good local schools? Valerie knows she's not a smart woman, but maybe that's why she cares so passionately about her children's education.

Maybe she should try talking to a dad? And that's when she runs into Patrick Nova. They get to talking and discover that Patrick and Maxwell were frat brothers for a minute, Sim State University, almost ten years ago. Maxwell was older, and just graduating when Patrick moved into the house. And hey, Patrick has a little girl now too!

"Is it true there are no schools here?" he asks.
"It's true," Valerie says, "They bus them into Lakeside Heights."
"We need schools here! Patrick says.
"Yes, we do," Valerie says.
Patrick signs her petition, and says, "Hey, tell Max I said hi!"

Club-bunny: *death-glare...*

This girl is creepy. She says, "Hi, I'm Ana." What she doesn't say is, "I'm infatuated with your husband and stalking your family." Single-white-female much? Maxwell better start paying attention to which pretty blonde club-bunnies he's messing around with! Let's skip the crazy ones!!!

Finally Nina and Benjamin pack up and leave for Seaside Woods, but only after Nina signed over the club completely to Maxwell, physically and financially. "Do what you will with it now," she says. "It's all yours."

Maxwell puts the club up for sale.

Maybe this is the guy? He looks like the club-owning type. Maxwell just learned how to dazzle, and he's hoping to haggle this guy into buying the club at double what he paid for it! Shady? Maybe, but then, this is Maxwell we're talking about.

But nope, that wasn't the guy...

This is the one! Go get her, Maxwell, she's already weak in the knees!

Nope, wasn't her either.

Kevin what's-his-face, from Sim State??? Hey, they were even frat brothers for a minute!

(Maxwell reminds me of the Unsavory Charlatan sometimes, lol!)

Well, what do you know, old Kevin Beare from Sim State has an interest in gothic real estate! Maxwell walks out of the deal, after paying off the loans and fees, banking a nice $32,000! Now what does his mother have to say about that?

His mother doesn't have anything to say about it, but Valerie does.

Valerie has wanted a bigger house for years now. This house is a box! Devon is getting too big for the tiny closet of a bedroom! She reminds Maxwell that he is thirty-three years old now, and too old to be so flip-floppy. He needs to make up his mind and decide what he wants to be when he grows up! Maxwell thinks he just washed his hands of that club, but Valerie sees it like giving up. Well, one way or the other, the deal is done.

And besides, Maxwell figures they better hang on to that money, or put it back into a new business since Maxwell proves to be the worst criminal alive. Did you ever see anyone so ignorantly-blissful that he was just demoted??? Demoted again, to getaway driver, again. They didn't even say why this time, but he'd better shape up that work performance. He has to be careful - criminal bosses don't tend to just fire their employees, they put you where you won't be talking... like six feet under the ground, or behind bars!

So they didn't give him a reason for the demotion, but they did give him this thing to practice on. And what the heck does it do, Valerie asks? But before she could even finish the sentence, she saw what it does, and maybe she takes a little bit too much pleasure in laughing at him?

So maybe Angelo's father is a bit of a bumbling fool, but Angelo is happy to see him home more often, for the moment, while his time is freed up a little. They have a family smustle before dinner...

They swing around a little in the yard. He knows his dad's work is always changing, and he probably won't be hanging around the house for long.

Angelo is a smart kid, and is about 90% sure his dad is probably up to no good. But even so, Angelo would gladly grow up to be just like his daddy, but maybe a little smarter? He thinks his dad could stand to take a few pointers. He tends to mess things up quite a bit, and even a nine-year-old can see that.

But Maxwell would rather see Angelo carve out his own path in life. He has to admit, it wouldn't be very hard to do better than he's done for himself. Maxwell suggests, "Why don't you be a musician? I always wanted to be a rock star when I was a kid. Air guitar, like this, let me show you how it's done."

***

notes: That house was such a cool night club, in theory, but the lot and building was just SO big! My sad little computer couldn't handle it, and any time I played it, it just crawled. So it was hard for Maxwell to play as an owner, and I never wanted to take my club-going Sims there because it wasn't very playable.

Maxwell made a little bit of profit off the sale, and though Valerie demands a bigger house, he also definitely wants to invest in another club. Something simpler maybe. Maybe it'll even be haunted... ;)

I'm sorry, but these two are just about the cutest Sim-kids I ever had!

*Dun-Dun-Dun...* Another handsome married man, a new family to stalk?

Run, Patrick, run!